CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction
3.3 Study population
The rural population in the Demographic Surveillance Area (DSA) of Africa
Centre for Health and Population Studies, the Hlabisa sub-district is situated in the southern part of Mkhanyakude District Municipality, and was chosen as the study population. The DSA is situated about 250 km north of Durban. The area is characterized by rural decentralized homesteads under traditional authority, and a peri-urban township with formal and informal settlements under the municipal authority.
This population is generally a black community and in 2001 the socio-economic status of the area was described as follows:
Thirty eight percent (38%) of the households in the DSA had access to piped water, either in their dwellings (8%), in their yards (15%) or at a public tap (15%).
Boreholes provide a safe alternative in 13% of households. A large proportion (42%) of households had no access to clean water as most relied on water from a flowing river or a stream and 7% had to use stagnant water, with all the resultant hazards.
Half of all households in the DSA reported using a pit latrine. A small fraction (4%) of these, had a ventilation-improved (VIP) pit latrine and the rest the (46%) used ordinary pit latrines. Thirty nine percent of households in the DSA reported that they had no toilet facilities and the rest had a waterborne sewerage system (these respondents lived in the township). Half of all DSA households had electricity.
As far as education is concerned, the average 20 year old had completed over 7 years of schooling; 40 year olds 4 years of schooling, and 60 year olds only 2
years of schooling. Thirty eight percent (38%) of the population aged 15 to 65 reported that they were currently employed. Twenty five percent (25 %) were unemployed and the remaining 37% were not economically active. Thirty six percent (36%) of all children under the age of 7 have had some contact with the child support grant system, and between 80 and 90 per cent of children aged 1- 6 years who had contact with the system had been receiving grants since 2002.
Households rely on both informal and formal money borrowing for consumption and financial risk management. Households are often excluded from, or have limited access to, savings and borrowing mechanisms (Zambuko and Mturi, 2003:46-76). The study population comprised only women from the local community. It comprised married and unmarried women from the ages of 20 to 90.
3.4 Sampling, selection and identification of study participants
A sampling frame was used which was the pool of potential population in the Africa Center Demographic Information System (ACDIS) on migration data (This data was solely for homesteads in which there was a man who was away on migrant labour). Systematic sampling was used by selecting every 5th homestead from the pool giving a total of 10 homesteads selected for the study.
Selection for In-depth interviews
Fifteen (15) women were selected for in-depth interviews. These comprised five (5) unemployed married women of migrant labourers, five (5) key informants of elderly women and five (5) employed women of unemployed men selected.
Selection of unemployed married women of migrant labourers
From the 10 homesteads selected from the pool two (2) unemployed women of migrant men were selected from 2 homesteads. The additional three (3) women were selected through snowballing, where respondents pointed out others who met the selection criteria. A total of 5 unemployed women of migrant men were selected.
Selection of key informants
Purposive sampling was done to select five (5) key informants from the remaining eight (8) homesteads. This second group selected for the in-depth interviews was defined as elderly female community members who had been married to migrant men for many years. They had grown up children who were migrant workers themselves. These key informants were selected because they were in a position to have a good knowledge and experience of the life of a wife of a migrant husband. They were also living with the daughters-in-laws in order to give an account of their daughters-in-laws' life styles. The 5 key informants were widows older than 55 years of age.
Selection of employed women of migrant labourers
The third group of women participants comprised three (3) employed women selected by purposive sampling. Further two (2) women were selected by snowballing. In all 5 in-depth interviews were conducted
Selection for focus group discussions
Participants for the focus group discussions (FGDs) were different from participants for in-depth interviews. Thirty eight (38) women were selected for FGDs and five (5) FGDs were conducted. Participants were distributed to five FGDs as follows: FGD 1 had 5 participants; FGD 2 had 7 participants; FGD 3 had 7 participants; FGD 4 had 10 participants; FGD 5 had 9 participants.
One of the FGDs was conducted with a group of young unmarried women, which I selected from a group of trainee fieldworkers. Four (4) other focus group discussions were conducted with women from other households in the DSA.
Among these four, one constituted of married and unmarried women. Some of the married women in this focus group were not married to migrant men. This was done in order to get a general experience of what other women felt with regard to vulnerability of women to HIV infection in general and vulnerability of women of migrant men in particular.
Other FGDs were conducted with the study participants who had been identified by the Community Health Workers CHWs. Participants identified by these CHWs also identified other participants whose husbands were migrants through snowballing. This kind of sampling used to identify women of migrant men to form focus groups was done until saturation was reached. Elected participants for FGDs included married and unmarried women aged between 20 and 55 years.
Process of data collection
Data collection started with in-depth interviews of the key informants to get an idea of what happened when they were still women of migrant men. The interviews consisted mainly of the history of what happened to them when they still had their husbands working away from home, compared to what they saw happening with the younger wives of migrant men. The next step was to conduct a focus group discussion with unmarried women to assess what they knew or had seen married women of the day do while their husbands were away. This data would give me a picture of what other people conceived as sexual behaviour of the old and the young women who were married to migrant men. It would also refute or support what the women of migrant men conceived of what constituted their own sexual behaviour. Over and above, this data would help provide the area of focus when actually interviewing the women of migrant men.
After interviewing the old women, three (3) in-depth interviews were conducted with unemployed married women, in order to get a picture of what sexual practices married women engaged in while their husbands were away. Data obtained from the first focus group discussions and the first interviews formed the platform for the interviews and focus group discussions that were still to be carried out with other groups of women. These interviews and the focus group discussions were also used to verify what women in the first interviews had said.
After the interviews of the key informants and the 3 focus group discussions, the interviews for married women and 2 focus group discussions were conducted
interchangeably, i.e. 3 interviews, a focus group discussion, 2 interviews and the last focus group discussions. The reason for following the process of data collection using focus group discussions and interviews interchangeably was to verify data already obtained. Verification of data would ensure consistency and quality of data collected. Data collection would be according to my own sense of what data still needed to be obtained.
The smallest focus group discussion had 5 participants and the largest focus group discussion comprised 10 participants. All participants were selected based on their informed consent. Preliminary information of how to introduce the study was given to the CHW. On the day of the focus group discussion, full information was given to the participants to obtain informed consent. The information consisted of explaining about the purpose of the study as obtained on the Information Sheet (Refer to appendix C).
Selection of participants for the focus group discussions was also guided by
socio-demographic factors in terms of age, employment/unemployment, migration, marital status, and education level. This information was used by both the researcher and the CHWs in the selection process.
Sample size
In qualitative research, rather than being predefined, the sample size is determined by data saturation, meaning that the sample size is considered
sufficiently large when no new data is obtained (Kempkes, 1999: 18). For instance, before the actual process of data collection started, it was anticipated that more interviews with married women and fewer interviews with key informants would be enough to give the required data. At the end, however, 5 interviews with the unemployed wives of migrant labourers, 5 interviews with key informants and 5 interviews with the employed migrant women were conducted to provide satisfactory data according to my discretion. In addition to the 15 in- depth interviews and 5 focus group discussions were also conducted.
3.5 Data collection method
Demographic characteristics
Demographic characteristics of participants were collected. This information served to provide individual attributes that were needed in data analysis. Fifteen (15) interviews and 5 focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted. The demographic information of the participants is illustrated below:
Table 3 . 1 : Description of participants Ages in
years 55 to 90
20 to 55
Number 5
5
Identification
Key informants comprising widows whose husbands were once migrants during their lifetime, with whom in-depth interviews were conducted.
Unemployed wives of migrant men whose husbands were still alive and on migrant labour, with whom in-depth interviews were conducted
Education Grade 0 to 6
Grade 4 to 10
Occupation
Pensioners, with one non- pensioner selling 'love medicines' to women having problems with their husbands
Majority were housewives.
One had a sewing machine and was selling clothes at pension pay points. Another one was making grass sleeping mats
30 to 50
30 to 50 30 to 49
31 to 44
25 to 40
20 to 30 5
5 7
7
10
9
Employed wives of men who are unemployed with whom in- depth interviews were conducted.
FGD 1: Wives of migrant men.
FGD 2: Wives of migrant men
FGD 3: Wives of migrant men
FGD 4: Mixed group of married and unmarried women.
FGD 5: Unmarried women
Grade 5 to 10
Grade 7 to 10
Grade 4 to 8
Grade 8 to 12
Grade 6 to 10
Grade 12 +
Three (3) domestic workers, 1 self employed and 1 general assistant in a hospital.
Five (5) housewives and unemployed women.
Six (6) housewives and one (1) Community Health Worker.
All seven (7) involved in income generating projects like craft and sewing.
A few involved in craft and some in gardening. The unmarried women are not involved in any project
All nine (9) trainee research fieldworkers.
In-depth interviews
In-depth interviews were conducted with married women whose husbands were working away from home as well as with women who were working away from their homes while their husbands were non-migrants. This included unmarried women living with their regular partners in a cohabitation relationship with the family regarding them as legal wives.
In-depth interviews were also conducted with old women above the age of 55 years who served as key informants. Women of this age group were selected because of the experiences which they had had when they were young married wives whose husbands were migrants. These older women were in a good position to compare their activities as young women when their husbands were away with the behaviour of contemporary women in a similar position. Thus they
would give a historical picture of sexual behaviour patterns and personal histories. Interviews were tape-recorded while the scribe took notes.
In practice in-depth interviews that are unstructured generate more individual data as they accord the researcher more flexibility to adapt to the individual participant. Interviews in this study were conducted in an informal way so that the participants were able to introduce more issues which had not been anticipated by the researcher. In-depth interviews also ensure a high level of confidentiality.
In this study, the interview guide was based on the issues related to the objectives of the study and this guide was used during the interviews (Refer to appendix D as based on the study objectives in section 1.3).
Focus Group Discussions
Focus group discussions were conducted with the study participants who had been identified by the Community Health Workers. Participants identified by these workers also identified other participants whose husbands were migrants.
Five focus group discussions were conducted. These discussions were semi- structured, focusing on migration and changing relationship patterns. Topics covered included the prevalence of different kinds of relationships and the historical emergence of sexual relations, which married women engaged in while their husbands were away. Data on sexual relations was to date back about hundred years ago, as older women told of what they had heard happening in generations before them. Factors perpetuating the presence of these
relationships, access to environmental resources (human, economic and material resources) and the effects these resources had on sexual relationships, informed part of the interviews. The influence of cultural, gender and social factors on the emergence of such relationships, women's rights issues, knowledge of HIV/AIDS, risk factors and implications they have on the progression of the epidemic were also discussed. In the case of the focus group discussions, discussions were conducted using the interview guide based on the basic issues of the study and the initial findings of interviews with other participants and the key informants (Refer to appendices E and F as based on the study objectives in 1.3|
3.6 Research assistant